Always Curious, But Never Searching . ..

 

My name is Anna and I am 25 years old. I was adopted from Yueyang, Hunan, in May 1996 (born in 1995). I grew up in Arlington, MA with my mom and 2 dogs! I had never been searching, but have always been interested and curious. I never thought it would happen. Not that I was not curious or wanting to find them. It just seemed impossible and something that would never happen. 

I wanted to share a bit of my story… The past three days has been an absolute whirlwind, but I have learned so much about my history and about my birth family. I took a 23andMe DNA test in 2018 to see what my background might look like. After 3 years of having no close matches, I stopped checking but uploaded my results on GedMatch. 

Last Thursday I got a message on Facebook from Brian, asking me to check my results! I had a match: a brother. Because of Brian & Longlan, I have had the amazing opportunity to talk to my birth family through WeChat. My birth family, originally from Anhui Province, moved to Yueyang in Hunan for business, where they had me, their second daughter. Given the strict One-Child Policy, she gave birth to me in hiding and hid me for several months until she found a family who would “foster” me. She had every intention of going back and getting me one day… 

Eight days after she gave me to the other family, I was taken by the Family Planning officials and taken to the orphanage. My birth mother had no idea where I had gone, or what happened to me. I have been amazed to learn that my birth family has been searching for me ever since. We were able to be reunited because of her perseverance. She travelled back to Yueyang (she has since moved to another Province) several times in search of her “lost daughter” -- me. This is truly something that I never thought would happen to me. Thank you so much to everyone who helped me to get to this point in my journey, and I cannot wait to see what this adventure and story has in store for me and my family and birth family next.